The Firsting
by Tigerclaw
Summary: Max finds out he's one of Gaia's chosen warriors


Disclaimer: Ideas and settings for Werewolf:The Apocalypse belong to White Wolf but the character and plot is mine.  
  
  
"Max, sheriushlee...you gotta hab somma dis. Is good shtuff!" The woman slurred to Max, waving her King's beer in his face. He took a step in the opposite direction. He didn't even know who this woman was, or how she knew his name.   
"Get away from me..." He worked his way through the crowd. Some party this was. The house was trashed, and packed with people. Loud music blared from seemingly every direction and the floor was littered with various sorts of food stuffs and the occasional overturned beer can. All Max wanted to do was find his girlfriend, which was the man reason he had come to this party.  
Max was a handsome young man with short black hair and blue eyes, a lean build covered by jeans, black t-shirt and nikes. He wasn't even sure that his girlfriend was here but he had seen a car like hers outside. His friend Gene had invited him to the party. Now he was almost sorry he had as he barely managed to avoid a shirtless woman bending over and spraying a steady stream of yellow orange vomit.  
Finally he caught sight of his long haired friend, who was holding a drink in one hand and talking to some girl that Max had never seen. "GENE!" He called, running to him, dodging around other kids. Gene looked up and smiled.   
"Hey Max, how's it goin'? Have you met Alicia?" He asked. Max turned to the girl he'd been talking to. She was pretty enough, with long curly brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and violet eyes, probably from the colored contacts. She wore tight clothes that accented her large bust and curvy figure, which was probably why Gene was talking to her, knowing him.   
"Uh, no. Pleased to meet you." He said, shaking her hand. Pleasantries aside, he turned back to Gene. "Have you seen Lana?" A worried look crossed Gene's face and he wouldn't meet Max's eye.  
"Last I saw, she was upstairs, talking to Johnny." Gene said softly. Max's eyes widened. Johnny was Lana's old boyfriend and he'd long suspected that she'd never gotten over him. This was made worse by the fact that Lana didn't know Max would be at the party. That had been a last minute thing and it would probably give her the perfect chance to get away with seeing him and never having Max be any wiser.   
Max's handsome features hardened into an unreadable mask except for the glowing anger in his eyes. He abruptly started charging up the stairs, pushing and elbowing people out of his way, and attracting a few angry "Heys!" along the way. He ignored them all. Once he reached the top of the stairs, he stalked down the hall, opening doors and sticking his head in to see if there was any sign of Lana. Most of the rooms were empty though in one bathroom there were three kids smoking joints.  
Finally Max came upon the last door. He hesitantly turned the handle and pushed the door open. What he saw made his heart shatter. The light that spilled into the darkened interior of the room revealed Lana's curvy form, naked and straddling Johnny as he went at it like a piston, tearing guttural cries from Lana. Apparently they were too far gone in their fun to notice Max standing open mouthed at the door, his hand still on the handle. When he finally found his voice, he roared.  
"LANA!" She turned, even in mid hump and saw his stricken face, and if she hadn't been so preoccupied might have done something about it but apparently at that moment she reached her peak and screamed. That was too much for Max. He slammed the door and ran through the crowd, anger blurring the edge of his vision red. He charged through people even rougher than before, actually knocking a couple people over and causing one girl to spill a drink on herself. He ignored Gene's voice asking him what had happened and just stormed out the door, slamming it behind him.   
Max stalked to his Dodge Shadow where it was parked in the street, got in, started it an peeled off for home. He sped the entire way home, tears starting to blur his eyes now that the red haze of anger had worn off. He didn't notice the flashing lights until they were right on his tail. Cursing, Max pulled off to the side of the road and put the gearshift into park.   
The cop took forever to walk over to the driver's side window. He was a big man with short brown hair and a thick mustache. He wore his uniform proudly apparently because it was sharply pressed. "License and insurance please." The cop requested shining his flashlight into the interior of Max's car.  
Probably checking for drugs or booze. Max realized. He handed the papers to the officer along with his license.   
"You know why I pulled you over son?" The officer asked somewhat sternly. Max turned his eyes, which were now puffy from crying, to the officer.   
"Because I was speeding officer?" Max returned quietly and politely.  
"That's right, I clocked you at 65 in a 55." The officer's voice was softer now, a bit more empathetic perhaps. "Something wrong?" The trooper asked, his curiosity overcoming his professional aloofness.  
Max sniffed. "Just caught my girlfriend screwing another guy, her ex-boyfriend as a matter of fact." He explained. The officer winced.  
"Hey man, I caught my wife cheatin' once too. It damn near broke my heart. Look, you think you can slow down a bit there son?" Max nodded eagerly. The cop handed him back his license and insurance papers. "You just slow down. I catch you speeding again and I ain't gonna be as forgiving, you got that?" The cop, once more Mr. Gruff professional asked. Again, Max nodded, more than happy to oblige. "Have yourself a better night young man." With that, the cop turned and walked back to his cruiser.  
Remembering the cop behind him, Max signaled, before shifting to drive and rejoining the flow of traffic. The trooper followed him for a few more blocks as though making sure he kept under the limit, before turning down another side street. Twenty minutes of careful, slow driving later, Max pulled into the garage of his green two story house in the suburbs. Getting out, he did note the absence of his parents van.   
Must still be at that Disney movie with Andrea. Andrea was his eight year old sister. Probably better that way... All Max wanted was some peace and quiet for now. He entered through the door that led from the garage to the kitchen. All of a sudden he was struck by the the odd thought that something was WRONG! He didn't know exactly what it was, but the feeling haunted him as he walked through the kitchen to the stairs that led up to his room. Just as he put his hand on the railing, he heard a voice like something out of his nightmares.  
"OH MAAAXX!" Max whirled around and his eyes went wide with terror. Standing in the kitchen where he'd just been were three impossibly huge monsters, so tall in fact that they had to stoop to avoid hitting their heads on the eight foot tall skylighted ceiling of the kitchen. Each one had a sickly green fur covering its body with long apelike arms and legs like a dogs including high arched ankles and paws. Two of them even had tails. Their heads were different though, they had snouts that vaguely resembled a hyena's with long drooping batlike ears. One of the creatures had leathery folds of skin, almost like wings under his arms.   
"Where have you been Max? It's almost 10:30 at night. You had us worried sick." One of the monstrosities rumbled mockingly. The other two snickered. At that moment, as these monsters loomed over him, Max realized that they were the feeling of WRONG! that he'd felt upon entering the house.  
"What the hell do you things want?!" Max's voice was stronger than he felt.  
"That's a no brainer Einstein, we want you!" The leftmost of the creatures growled. With that, they all leapt for him. He managed to jump over the first one that came in a sliding tackle at his feet. It slid on the smooth hallway tile, momentum unchecked, right into the wall, causing some plaster to rain down. Max managed to somehow miraculously duck under the swing of the second beast, only to be clocked by the third in a backhanded blow. Max's entire body went numb as he flew across the hallway and back into the kitchen where he hit the table hard enough to slide it over a few inches.   
As he lay there amidst the chairs he'd knocked over, he felt a sharp pain stab him in the stomach and race throughout his veins like molten lava. He looked down at his arm and saw muscles writhing underneath the skin and suddenly sprouting black and gray and white fur. He started to grow, incredible strength rushing to his expanding muscles in place of the pain. His arms grew long and apelike. His face pushed out into a wolfs snout filled with razor sharp fangs that took the place of dull human teeth. His legs also became like a dog's, more appropriately a wolf's, his ankles arching high as his feet turned to paws and a tail sprouted from his tailbone. He stood up, the pain rushing away and he found he had to stoop as well to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. He was a magnificent furry beast with a wolf's head atop his impossibly broad shoulders.   
Max lunged at the one that had hit him, hands outstretched, talons gleaming. I have claws? The thought ran through his addled mind as he tore into the monster, snarling mindlessly and slashing again and again with his steely hard claws and tremendously powerful arms. Blood and greenish fur flew in all direction and the monster went down hard. Max felt a righteous sense of justice as the beast died with he ripped its throat out with powerful clamp of his jaws.   
Just then the second one plowed into Max and they went down in a flurry of slashing claws and snapping jaws. The beast was stronger, but Max was smarter. He braced his feet against the thing's chest and pushed with all his might. It flew across the room and landed on the other one that was just starting to get over its collision with the wall. Max's attacker got up and came at him, eyes having lost the light of sanity and now glowing with an all consuming bloodlust. Max went under the creature's defenses and slashed open its stomach with one powerful swipe but then it was on him, tearing into his side with it's own slicing claws, ignoring the fact that its intestines were dragging behind it on the floor. Max fell back under the creatures weight and they both went crashing to the floor a second time.   
Max had one chance, he thrust his hand toward the creature's face, claws finding the creature's eyes and poking them out. The other hand slashed at the throat. The creature's attack weakened with each beat of its heart that pumped it's life's blood out of its open wounds. Finally it just keeled over dead. Max reached one huge hair hand up and grabbed the edge of the table, trying to pull himself up. He was just too big however and only ended up tipping over the table.   
As Max stood weakly to his feet, blood matting his fur from cuts all over his body, he saw the last creature sailing towards him with a gleam of victory in its otherwise insane eyes. Max knew that even as powerful as he was in this form, he didn't stand a chance and he braced for imminent death. At the last possible moment, an explosion shattered the night silence and the creature's head exploded in a shower of blood and bone and brains that splattered against Max's already bloodstained muzzle. He turned his massive head to see a tall man with buzzed brown hair and a beard on chiseled features, wearing a trenchcoat with one arm outstretched, with a smoking Magnum in the hand.  
"Come with me if you want to live." The man quoted the famous line just as Max felt himself shrinking. His last thought before fainting into the man's arms were:  
What happened to me?! 


End file.
